ABSTRACT
Action learning differs from traditional courses of management education in several ways: It is concerned with taking specific action as well as with talking about taking some general class of action. Because specific action must be taken by specific persons, those engaged in action learning gain insight not only into their problems but also into their individual perceptions of and personal responses to such problems. In action learning the majority of time is given both to diagnosing in the field what the problem may be and to applying any solutions to the problem that may be suggested. Action learning is vitally concerned with the posing of effective questions in working conditions of ignorance, confusion and uncertainty. The one statistically verifiable exercise in the field — an action learning project among hospitals — shows that participating institutions improved their performance very significantly more than did a control group of similar hospitals that did not participate.
